DAW Books

Founded in 1971 by veteran paperback editor Donald A. Wollheim, along with his wife, Elsie B. Wollheim, DAW Books was the first publishing company ever devoted exclusively to science fiction and fantasy.

Now nearly 50 years and almost two thousand titles later, DAW has a well-deserved reputation for discovering and publishing the hottest talents in the industry. Many stars of the science fiction and fantasy field made their debuts in the pages of a DAW book, including Patrick Rothfuss, Tad Williams, C. J. Cherryh, Mercedes Lackey, Kristen Britain, Melanie Rawn, C.S. Friedman, and Tanith Lee.

Despite its high profile, DAW is still a small private company, owned exclusively by its publishers, Elizabeth R. Wollheim and Sheila E. Gilbert. Betsy and Sheila are strongly committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, and to keeping a personal “family” spirit at DAW—something they feel is all too rare in today’s world of international conglomerate publishing.

DAW accepts unsolicited submissions of science fiction and fantasy novels. We cannot consider short stories, short story collections, novellas, or poetry. The average length of the novels we publish varies, but is almost never fewer than 80,000 words.

We seek to publish a wide range of voices and stories, because we believe that it is the duty of the science fiction and fantasy genres to be inclusive and representative of as many diverse viewpoints as possible.

To this end, DAW is actively seeking new works of science fiction and fantasy written by and/or featuring people of color, Native people, disabled people, neuroatypical people, LGBTQIA+ people, and other underrepresented and marginalized communities.

A literary agent is not required for submission. We will not consider manuscripts that are currently on submission to another publisher unless prior arrangements have been made with a literary agent. It may require three months or more for our editors to review a manuscript. If we take longer than three months to review your manuscript, we no longer require an exclusive submission.

It is not necessary for you to register or copyright your work before publication—it is protected by law as long as it has not been published. When published, we will copyright the book in the author’s name and register that copyright with the Library of Congress.